Prayer is Your Place of Safety (Part 2)

Why Do We Need to Pray?

1.12.2020

Review

In this series, we are addressing the importance of prayer in 2020, and how your prayer life can become the most important part of your day.

Samuel Chadwick

The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. Satan fears nothing from prayerless studies, teaching, and preaching. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.

E.M. Bounds

How we estimate and place prayer is how we estimate and place God. To give prayer a secondary place is to make God secondary in life’s affairs.

Last week we saw that Jesus lived out of His prayer life, and that He spent a lot of time praying before ministry.

We talked about the importance of our praying about everything, and how prayer can prepare us for the things that are in our future.

Today:

Why Do We Need to Pray?

Matthew 28:18-20 – NKJV

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen

After His resurrection and just before His ascension to heaven, Jesus stood as the representative man – declaring that God’s authority had been given to Him. He had that authority before the cross, and now, as the God/man, the representative new-creature-in-Christ man, He declares that He has all authority in heaven and on earth.

Why did Jesus declare this after His resurrection and just before His ascension to heaven?

Ephesians 6:10-13 – NLT

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. (11) Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. (12) For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. (13) Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.

James 4:7 – NLT

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

To understand the necessity of prayer, let’s go back and look at the very beginning.

Ten points that explain why we must pray:

1. An angel named Lucifer (Satan) became corrupted and rebelled against God.

Satan was an angel in heaven, became corrupted, and fell to the earth.

Satan began an insurrection against God in eternity past. His pride led him to believe that he was more powerful and intelligent than God. He slandered God before the angels of heaven, and some fell with him. He was cast out of heaven by God.

Isaiah 14:12-17 – NLT

How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. (13) For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. (14) I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ (15) Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths.

2. When Satan was thrown out of heaven, he fell to the earth.

Luke 10:17,18 – NLT

When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!”

There is a theory called the Gap Theory, that gives the idea that there is a gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. This theory says that there may have been a race of beings here on earth prior to Adam, and this race was corrupted by Satan when he fell from heaven. God destroyed this race with a catastrophic flood. And the Hebrew verbiage in Genesis 1 leads us to think that God actually recreated the earth just prior to the creation of man, bringing order out of the chaos created when Satan fell and corrupted the pre-Adam race that was here.

The bottom line was that Satan was here prior to the creation of man.

3. In the first man Adam, God gave the human race a measure of His all-authority. He became God’s under-ruler on the earth.

God, an eternal being, is the ultimate authority in the entire universe. God is the ETERNAL ONE. He lives outside of His creation. God gave Adam, and in him the human race, a measure of His all-authority for the purpose of ruling over the earth for Him.

God gave man an original time-limited authority over the earth.

Notice Genesis 1:26-28

Then God said, “Let Us make human beings in our image, to be like Us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” (27) So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (28) Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

Genesis 1:26-28 – NKJV

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (27) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (28) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Psalm 8:3-9 – NLT

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place — (4) what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human

beings that you should care for them? (5) Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. (6) You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority — (7) the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, (8) the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. (9) O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

4. This authority was transferred to Satan when Adam sinned.

Hebrews 2:6-8 – NKJV

But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? (7) You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. (8) You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.

Luke 4:5-6 – NKJV

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. (6) And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Amplified

For it has been turned over to me

Complete Jewish Bible

It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose.

5. Two things happened when Adam sinned:

1) Fellowship with God was broken and man fell into the state of sin.

2) The God-given authority that man originally had was transferred to Satan, and he became the god of this world.

6. Satan now has a legal right to rule on earth until that original lease of dominion given to Adam by God runs out.

Matthew 8:29 – NLT

They began screaming at him, “Why are you interfering with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before God’s appointed time?”

Revelation 12:12 – NLT

Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.

Revelation 20:1-3 – NLT​

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. (2) He seized the dragon—that old serpent, who is the devil,

Satan — and bound him in chains for a thousand years. (3) The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations

anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward he must be released for a little while.

7. Satan now has a legal right to be here. And with that legal right, he is working to hinder God’s plan and purposes in the earth.

John 10:10 – NKJV

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 10:10 – NLT

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

John 14:30 – NKJV

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

John 14:30 – NLT

I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me,

John 14:30 – AMPL

I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.]

2 Corinthians 4:4 – NKJV

whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

2 Corinthians 4:4 – NLT

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

Ephesians 2:1-3 – NLT

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. (2) You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil — the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. (3) All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

Ephesians 6:12 – NLT

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

1 John 5:19 – CEV

We are certain that we come from God and that the rest of the world is under the power of the devil.

1 John 5:19 (Passion Translation)

We know that we are God’s children and that the whole world lies under the misery and influence of the Evil One.

Satan has a legal right to be here. He rules over the unsaved masses of humanity.

He rules in Christians who are ignorant of their authority in Christ.

8. Though Satan has a legal authority to be here, the church now has had man’s original authority restored in Christ.

Matthew 28:18-20 – NKJV

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Revelation 1:18 – NKJV

I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of death.

Ephesians 2:6 – NKJV

And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:6 – NLT

For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1:13

13 [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

9. Christians are the only people on earth with authority over Satan and his helpers.

Matthew 28:18-20 – NKJV

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

10. Our prayers give God permission to bring to pass His kingdom and His rule wherever authority over Satan is exercised.

So now you can understand James’ statement:

James 4:2-3 – NKJV

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. (3) You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

In prayer, we can exercise authority over Satan and his forces that are seeking to hinder our lives.

God’s hands are tied unless He can find someone to pray and allow Him to manifest His kingdom. He must have our cooperation.

When we don’t pray, Satan gains the advantage.

Action Points:

1. Would you consider your prayer life as casual or very serious?

2. God must have our cooperation to invade our lives. Prayer gives Him that cooperation.

3. Do you exercise your God-given authority over Satan in your family and personal life issues, like your job, your finances, your health, and your relational life?